The menu at Harper’s, a new restaurant in Deep Ellum, is “all over the map,” says co-owner Imran Sheikh. There’s deviled eggs, Korean fried cauliflower, pizzas (some topped with Mexican street corn, others with chicken tikka), Texas quail and a long list of steaks.
“I want this restaurant to have no boundaries,” Sheikh says.
Harper’s is named after a fictional woman — an adventure-seeker, as Sheikh envisions her — who jet-setted around the globe, then came back to Dallas to serve her friends her favorite dishes. In reality, the one masterminding those dishes is chef Jacob Williamson, who has worked for Wolfgang Puck for the past decade, including at the fine-dining restaurant Five Sixty at the top of Reunion Tower for the past five years until it closed in spring 2020.
Sheikh hired Williamson in August 2020, and he has been designing the “no boundaries” menu for Harper’s since then.
The restaurant’s design is immersive and fun, the kind of place where you can talk loudly and bring a bunch of friends. Five curved booths, with room for at least eight people each, line one wall covered in colorful wallpaper studded with black velvet.
Sheikh wants Harper’s to have the ambience of a bar, with fine-dining food. It’s his restaurant group’s most upscale restaurant to date.
Their company Milkshake Concepts — which has invested heavily in Deep Ellum, specifically — also owns and operates Mexican restaurant Vidorra, cocktail bar and restaurant Stirr, chicken wing joint Dirty Bones, Serious Pizza and Sky Rocket Burger. They’re also opening a four-story restaurant/live music hangout/rooftop bar in Nashville in fall 2021.
And they own Citizen, a nightclub that’s a 5-minute walk away from Harper’s. Citizen doesn’t open until 10 p.m. on the weekends. Harper’s first, Citizen second? That’ll be the itinerary for some partygoers on Saturday nights.
Harper’s is their 7,600-square-foot supper club, built into one of the three buildings in The Epic — one of Deep Ellum’s biggest construction projects to date. (This is the same development that previously expected to house 3,000 Uber workers, though that number has shrunk since the pandemic hit.) Harper’s was initially expected to open in September 2020, then in March 2021. Pandemic-related delays and design changes pushed the opening date back until late summer 2021.
“When you’ve put this much love into a concept,” Sheikh says, “you wait until it’s ready.”
Chef Williamson’s favorite dish is the sweet corn agnolotti, a housemade pasta topped with ricotta and shaved black truffles. Williamson expects to change it seasonally; maybe he’ll swap in squash in the fall.
His deviled eggs come fried in panko and topped with whipped pimento cheese and caviar. They’re a delightful little bite — and who knows, maybe they’re inspired by a weekend trip Harper took to her rich aunt’s house in the South. The surf ‘n turf oshizushi, a pressed sushi dish, layers slices of Wagyu on top of rice married with poached lobster. It’s a fun, shareable dish, and great: You’ll likely be dining with a group.
The pizzas are curious and alluring. Look past the traditional margherita or spicy pepperoni, and there’s a Jamaican barbecue pizza; a Mexican street corn pizza; a chicken tikka pizza with jalapeños; and a braised short rib pizza topped with dancing bonito flakes.
We’re in Texas, so there’s a burger on Harper’s menu. This one is meant to pair with a glass of Burgundy, meaning it’s big, bold and beefy. After the staff went through “burger tastings for days and days,” Williamson’s final answer is a Wagyu beef patty accompanied by fried shallots, tomato jam, arugula, truffle mustard aioli, and a Gruyère-like cheese called Comté.
“It’s a gourmet burger if ever there was one,” Sheikh says. It’s priced at $24.
One of the dishes I need to try is the Korean-style beef rib. It’s rare to see a full beef rib anywhere other than a barbecue restaurant. (And just so you can picture it: This is a single rib from a cow, so it’s as long as your forearm, and almost as big around.) Williamson’s beef rib is slathered in gochujang, a sweet and spicy red chile paste often used in Korean dishes.
Cocktails are no afterthought, which makes sense since Harper’s was designed to feel like a bar. The Bye Bye Birdie is a bright pink orange-cranberry vodka drink served in a bird-shaped glass with a feather sticking out the end. Another interesting one is Harper’s “fave,” according to the menu. This Tale of 2 Cities is a trip: tequila from Jalisco, Mexico; vanilla reduction, sourced from Madagascar; and Faust cabernet from near Napa Valley, Calif.
The restaurant has an enclosed, air-conditioned patio, with doors that can accordion open when the weather allows. That room has more of an airy feel, with plants hanging from the ceilings and emerald green tones instead of the black, gold and wood in the main dining room.
You won’t actually find Harper there, but you’ll find her essence once her restaurant opens Aug. 5, 2021.
Harper’s is at 2525 Elm St., Dallas (at The Epic in Deep Ellum). Reservations recommended.
